Augustine Halford Waykes
|Row 5 title = Former Affiliations:|Row 5 info = |Row 6 title = Relatives:|Row 6 info = Tirion Fordring (distant relative, deceased) Alexandros Valenheist Waykes (father, deceased) Isabella Waykes (mother, deceased) Tyrold Alexandros Waykes (brother, deceased) Elisabeth Waykes (wife) Alexandros Augustine Waykes (son, deceased) Evelynn Isabella Waykes (daughter) Tyriana Elisabeth Waykes (daughter)|Row 7 title = Status|Row 7 info = |image =AugustineUniform.png |caption =The Silverpine Fox }} Augustine Halford Waykes is an ambitious man, with a grin specially designed to win hearts, a voice to win minds, and a corrupt, scheming mind to win pockets. This is a man without scruple or regret, whose sole ambition is to better his place in this world, and enjoy its fleeting joys while he is able. He is a man who can be trusted only when it serves his interests. Currently those interests are served by pressing a very weak, antiquated claim to Tirion Fordring's former seat in Hearthglen in the wake of the Alliance's breaking of the Forsaken's grip on western Lordaeron. Description Prim and proper this man is not, though he tries to be. His overblown chivalry would shame any comedic trouper, and the oil in his hair would grease the axles of the trouper's wagon for a month. Halford, as his friends are instructed to call him, stands just above six feet with a large bulky frame. At one point in his youth he may have cut a striking, even imposing figure, but old age has done him no favors, and decades of gluttony and alcohol abuse have left his body bloated and his innards scarred. He keeps his beard trimmed and his hair just below his shoulders, both in the last months of losing their original nut-brown color, and both decisions that only emphasize his wobbling double-chin. His face has a lordly quality to it, however, that could have even been handsome when he was younger, and even now it is relatively unlined. His only features that have not seemed to bloat or decay in some fashion are his eyes, a bright silver-gray that sparkle when he looks at an object of his desire. History Augustine Halford Waykes was born in the Eastweald, fifteen years before the arrival of the Orcs to Azeroth, to the Lord Weatherby, Baron Augustine Valenheist Waykes, and his lady-wife Isabella. The Barony of Weatherby was not a large one, situated between the duchies of Hearthglen and Caer Darrow, with its primary purpose being to monitor maritime trade that came to Darrowmere Lake from the north. The barony was technically a vassal of the Duke of Hearthglen, but due to the powerful influence of the House of Barov and their impact on trade, the Duke of Caer Darrow was their de facto liegelord. Though he was not firstborn and thus was unlikely to claim even the modicum of political authority his family had, Halford did seem poised to secure for himself a fair amount of glory in the annals of history. During the Second War, when the Horde began its invasion of Lordaeron, Halford volunteered as a cavalry officer, leading a company of dragoons into Silverpine that raided enemy supply lines and slowed the Orcish advance into Tirisfal. For this, he became known in military circles as the Silverpine Fox, and acquired a number of young lady-loves in the region; it is exceedingly likely he fathered at least one bastard, but he has never acknowledged any illegitimate children. After the war, he proposed to the most eligible of his lovers, Elisabeth, the daughter of a Lordaeronian vice admiral, and the two were soon married and pregnant with their son, Alexandros Augustine Waykes. The two lived on the vice admiral's estate until the outbreak of the Plague of Undeath, though they kept a second residence in the capital, where Halford made regular visits to the royal court (and numerous mistresses, if the rumors were to be believed). As peacetime presented great opportunities and few troubles, Halford grew complacent and began to gain weight, shedding the visage of the towering noble warrior he had carried with him as the Silverpine Fox. He and Elisabeth had three children in total, and their chief goal became finding advantageous marriages for them, a difficult task, given their lack of personal titles. At last, through shrewd manipulation and finally outright threats, Halford managed to secure a marriage for his son to Arzu Dilara, the daughter of a pair of courtiers in the royal court; however, Dilara fled before the marriage was sealed. Soon after, the Plague of Undeath consumed Lordaeron; Halford and his family survived by sheer dumb luck, and nothing more, as Halford's brother Tyrold had taken ill and Halford decided to leave the capital to secure his place as the new heir to Weatherby, thus narrowly avoiding the capital's fall. Weatherby by this point had completely fallen to the Plague, however, and Halford's attempt to drive off the cultists who now stalked the keep resulted in his son taking mortal wounds at the hands of a ghoul. They rode to Hearthglen and sheltered at Mardenholde, where his son succumbed to infection from his wounds. Furious, Halford joined with Othmar Garithos's resistance forces, and for a time the Silverpine Fox returned, the old dragoon in all his glory. However, as Garithos's cause became increasingly desperate, and ultimately failed at the hands of Sylvanas Windrunner, Halford once more returned to Hearthglen, joining the ranks of the nascent Scarlet Crusade by leveraging his reputation as a warrior. At his request, he and his family were relocated to Tyr's Hand, considered the safest location in the Plaguelands. Halford was never a particularly active member of the Crusade, mostly restricting his activities to scouting and defensive duties. Disillusioned by Garithos's failure, Halford had no desire to die in vain pursuit of some vague brighter future; it was perhaps only the death of Taelan Fordring that kept him in Lordaeron at all, as suddenly only one elderly exiled knight stood between him and a dukedom. He began to transition into the role of a trainer and tactical officer quickly, ultimately being removed from the front lines entirely. He remained with the Crusade until 29 LC, when New Avalon and the eastern wing of the Crusade collapsed, and Tirion Fordring emerged from hiding. No longer having a reason to remain, Halford took his family and fled into the mountains, slowly traversing the Hinterlands southward into Arathi. From there he followed the Redridge Highway south into Stormwind, where he sought asylum as a refugee. When his peerage was not sufficient to acquire him suitable lodgings, he married off his youngest daughter to an elderly merchant for a handsome brideprice, allowing him to purchase a worthy homestead in Stormwind City for himself, his wife, and Evelynn. He remained at peace in Stormwind for a few years, at last free of the nightmare that had gripped his homeland; however, soon he grew ambitious, desiring to once more elevate himself into the upper echelons of society, and as such he applied for a commission in the Stormwind Army as a trainer and logistics officer, doing his utmost to rub as many elbows as one man could, and to pin as many medals to his uniform as his large chest would allow. All the while, he held out on a marriage for his elder daughter, waiting until he could marry her up to a prestigious southern nobleman. This marriage, of course, never came, and Evelynn remains unmarried to this day at the age of 29. In 36 LC, after the death of Tirion Fordring during the Legion invasion, his station changed drastically. At last there was no more Fordring holding the claim to the Duchy of Hearthglen, and all he had to do was claim it and it was his. However, the Argent Crusade proved resistant to his efforts, refusing to hand the duchy over without further proof of his bloodline - and even then, most likely, they would have wanted to retain their control of the polity, as it was the center of the western sphere of influence. Regardless, Halford now insists upon the recognition of his title, an endless series of proclamations that at last drew the eye of certain factions interested in the reclamation of Hearthglen from its Argent occupiers. To this day, Halford remains in Stormwind as a reserve officer in the Stormwind Army, a position that his political connections ensure never calls him beyond the safety of Stormwindian territory. He has little standing among the Stormwindian nobility, and little respect among the Stormwind military, but he likes to pretend. Family Elisabeth Waykes Status: Halford's wife of over 30 years. Born to a Lordaeronian naval officer, she grew up educated but not landed, the perfect wife for a second son of a minor noble - particularly a war hero who had already shared her bed. She has a petite figure, standing an entire foot shorter than her husband, and blonde hair that has turned white. In her youth, she was described as a vigorous, adventurous, and devout woman; as she enters her waning years, she has become melancholy and reserved, and her relationship with her husband has suffered greatly due to his womanizing and particularly his "sale" of their youngest daughter. Alexandros Augustine Waykes Status: Truly his father's son, though he had his mother's strawberry blonde hair. While a bit on the hefty side, Alexandros managed to make the extra weight make him look strong rather than slothful. He was a lover of women but lacked his father's charisma and confidence with them, being far more comfortable in the presence of his male peers or subordinates. He had some of the arrogance of nobility, but he also had the skill to back it up in wartime. Like his father he was an excellent combat rider, though he was much more interested in the melee. He died before his 20th birthday to an infected wound caused by a ghoul, and his body was burned to prevent reanimation. He would never have been a great man - he lacked the ambition - but he could have been a good one. Evelynn Isabella Waykes Status: For better or for worse, Evelynn is the spitting image of her brother - strawberry blonde, tall, and bulky. With a combination of masculine features and her weight, she is no elven beauty, but she is well-endowed and assertive, so she certainly makes an impression; this mix of traits has also hampered her marriage prospects, leaving her single yet as she enters her late 20s. She possesses her father's blustering charisma and arrogance, and has a fiery temper, but is also incredibly resilient and supportive, leading her to be a rock for her mother and particularly her younger sister. She is very much the most like Halford, which is simultaneously why he perpetually argues with her but also why he chose to keep her over Tyriana. Tyriana Elisabeth Waykes Status: Halford's youngest daughter, and most timid. A petite brunette whose only joys were books and flowers in a world filled with fire and decay. She could be quietly stoic most of the time, but had a delicate personality that led to her being easily wounded. She was but a child when the Plague hit, and growing up in the blighted air left her gaunt and with a cough that has never fully recovered. Halford married her off at 16 to a lowborn merchant for the money to support the rest of his family. She is in her early 20s now, and she still writes from time to time. Awards Halford has technically been part of the Stormwind military complex since 32 LC, serving as a logistics officer for cavalry and a trainer for rifle dragoons. As will become very apparent from the distribution of medals he has been awarded, he has seen very little frontline action, and has accumulated most of his medals from a desk. Category:Lordaeronian Category:Lordaeron Peerage Category:Human Category:Scarlet Crusade